The Walking Dead - Season 3 Episode 12 - Recap Video and Review - Clear
Recap video and review of The Walking Dead - Season 3 Episode 12 - Clear:
One thing that cable shows do better than network shows of the same ilk are long-form, serialized storytelling. Sure, there have been plenty of network shows that have enriched their storylines with callbacks or plot elements from the past that looped back around when least expected (I'm mostly thinking of Lost, here, but there have been plenty others). But mainly, this form of storytelling has been the chief province of cable TV. The Walking Dead dips its toe into this noble tradition with "Clear", an episode that answers one of the series' oldest questions: The hell ever happened to Morgan (Lennie James)?
Credit: AMC
Last spotted in the pilot, Morgan was the man who saved the life of a newly-awakened Rick (Andrew Lincoln), despite having problems of his own, in the form of a young son named Duane, and a walkerfied wife he couldn't bring himself to kill (not terribly unlike The Governor's reticence with his own walkerfied daughter). Ever since, Rick has been turning on his radio every day at dawn, leaving a trail of information for Morgan to follow, in the hopes that his friend and savior would find him again. Though it's only been about a year since then, in show, it feels much longer for the viewer, given that Morgan was two whole seasons ago: hell, Shane was still alive, Dale was still kicking around in his bucket hat, Andrea still had a sister, and Carol still had a husband and daughter. So much has changed, that Morgan is likely the last person we reasonably could have expected to be under the mask as Rick, Carl (Chandler Riggs) and Michonne (Danai Gurira) waged battle against a lone, crazed gunman in a quaint little overrun town in the middle of scenic nowhere. Yet that's exactly who it was, as this quaint little town was once Rick and Carl's home, and the episode is very much in line with confronting the memories of a home, and a past, that doesn't really exist anymore. "Clear" is a remarkable episode that details just how the madness of this apocalypse seizes even the best of us, in some cases, while also illustrating how our circumstances help bind us together beyond the simple exigencies of survival.
The episode is pretty ponderous to start, setting a mood that is all about the pervasive danger of the atmosphere. Take, for instance, the hitchhiker that Rick, Carl and Michonne travel past en route to the town. They are on a supply run for guns and ammunition to help in their war against The Governor's forces, and the episode takes a very utilitarian approach to violence and survival: the trio doesn't bother to stop to pick up the orange-backpacked hitchhiker, whose cries and pleas grow louder and more desperate as time goes on. They simply can't afford to take on another stranger at this juncture, running low on supplies as they are (Morgan is another story, of course). They don't necessarily mean any ill-will towards the man - it's nothing personal, just necessity. This continues when the trio, the only three of our principle characters whom we see this week, comes to the run down town where the crazed gunman assaults the trespassers from the roof. Carl is the one who has to shoot him, and though Morgan is wearing body armor, Carl still feels the need to apologize for having shot him. It was nothing personal, of course. Yet Morgan takes the common sense approach: "Don't ever be sorry," he tells Carl, a mantra to live by in a world where apologies are as useless as an empty shell casing.
Credit: AMC
On the subject of Morgan, once Carl takes him down, Rick and company take him up to his den, where all sorts of crazy traps line the building, and crazy markings cover the walls, telling the story of a man who's completely lost his mind. The trio separates when Rick decides they're going to wait for the unconscious Morgan to awaken, and Carl decides to veer off in search of some unnamed artifact in their neighborhood, with Michonne accompanying. This week felt front-loaded with harrowing, scenery-chewing drama, but it works exceptionally well, particularly in the scene in which Morgan wakes up and attacks Rick, believing him to be "wearing a dead man's face." Rick insists to Morgan that he knows him, if only he would look a little harder. Yet Morgan is relentless, stabbing Rick in the shoulder and continuing his onslaught before recognizing the error of his ways. What follows is an observation of the different, yet strangely similar, tracts that both Morgan's and Rick's journeys have taken. For Rick, he lost his wife, but still has his son and daughter. However, Morgan lost Duane to the wife he had been too weak (or sentimental) to kill. Duane was bitten, Duane turned, and Duane had to be put down - an act that took his father's sanity with him. Lennie James is spectacular in his monologue, communicating the nightmarish terror and heartbreaking tragedy of witnessing your only remaining family being turned into something alien and unknowable, into something else entirely, all because of your own weakness and hesitation.
Morgan adopts a defeatist point of view with Rick, and doesn't entertain Rick's proposal of joining his group and returning to the prison with them. Whether it's walkers or people, Morgan doesn't believe for one second that Rick's people are as safe as he's suggesting. “You will be torn apart by teeth or by bullets,” he warns Rick, stating that if Rick is here to gather guns, he obviously needs them for something more than walkers -- someone is trying to take away whatever it is that he and his people have. The world-weary resignation of Morgan's character makes it all the more heartbreaking that he won't join Rick, since numerous people with seemingly nothing left to live for have joined Rick's party, only to find new causes with which to invest their spirit. But that isn't Morgan's path, and so he opts to stay behind as Rick and his crew move on.
Credit: Gene Page/AMC
But not before Michonne and Carl do a bit of bonding. I actually liked this storyline far more than the ostensible A-plot with Rick and Morgan, as it charts a very specific character arc from the start of the episode to the end: Carl tells Rick that he doesn't believe Michonne is really one of them, which Michonne overhears. She then spends the rest of the episode as Carl's guardian, accompanying him on his quest to retrieve something very valuable to him. Along the way, Carl comes to recognize that she's been through as much as they have, and that she genuinely cares about him, beyond their shared circumstances. Michonne's willingness to help him, and her understanding and respect of his resolve to see the mission through, ingrains a sort of respect for her, in Carl. When Michonne realizes what it is that Carl is after, she goes in and retrieves it for him: a framed photo of his mother and father along with a younger version of himself. It's the last remaining picture of his mother, and Carl says he felt that baby Judith should grow up knowing what her mother looked like. It's genuinely touching, yet it's also respectfully underplayed - there's no heartstring-tugging music or poignant looks traded between the actors. It's simple and to-the-point. And I really liked that approach, as it allows the developing friendship between Carl and Michonne to speak for itself. He goes from being a petulant kid who insists he doesn't need her help (while also, stupidly, trying to ditch her to run off on his own), to begrudging respect, to outright admiration, if not fondness. Michonne, meanwhile, goes from seeing Carl as a means to an end -- a kid she has to protect if she wants to stay in the group -- to viewing him with a greater deal of respect. Yes, he's still a child, but they're kindred spirits, in a way. They both have that same determination, the same warrior's spirit. It's a beautifully understated storyline, and is a well-told arc, reaching its conclusion when Carl tells Rick that she might be "one of us" after all.
Credit: AMC
Yet the humanity of the episode is shaded over in the closing moments of the episode, as the trio drives past the walker-ravaged corpse of the hitchhiker from the start of the episode. They pick up his orange backpack for the supplies contained within, before driving on as if nothing had happened. Survival is a study in knowing when to pick your battles. It's good to preserve your humanity, but the people that survive in this world are the ones who understand the necessity of doing what needs to be done.
